Typed THE END (again!) - This Time for PLAGUE OF LOCUSTS
Such a great feeling. And the words THE END (for the first draft) came 9 years to the day after I typed the first 1300 words in the novel. I started it in 2007, around the same time as I'd begun another novel, Lost in the Woods, for which I'd typed THE END only a few months ago, back in October. These two books seemed to be in orbit around each other from the beginning, though they are completely unrelated. LitW will be the next G Daniel Gunn horror novel, whereas PoL is another, slightly biblical-themed, DGK novel. Locusts is a science fiction book, taking place in 2169 on a planet called Toojay (it's a phoenetic spelling of its designation).
Back in '07, I wanted to write what I often like to read: sci-fi. I'd read Orson Scott Card's book on writing science fiction and took what he suggested to heart. I built the universe the story takes place in. To do that, I had to outline the history of mankind from modern day until the moment of the story, basically 160 years. The plot itself is pure SF, but running through it is the question of what happens after the feared apocalypse happens. Not with zombies, but Armageddon, two thirds of the world wiped out in the Final War. And how would God build a new Earth? It's NOT, in any sense of the word, a Left Behind type of book. In fact, funamental Christian readers will probably hate it becase, well, life went on. The Church survives, though changed, and the long running animosity between religions is gone. Forcibly, but still gone. Live with each other, or don't live. That's all running in the background. In the forefront, it's a pretty original sci-fi novel if I do say so myself.
The idea for it was spawned years before when I was stuck in a two hour meeting at work in which I had no real participation. To stay awake, I pretended to take notes, but in reality was writing a scene from a story - whatever came into my head. Years later, I found my little notes, and aside from very minor tweaking, it ended up as my first chapter. I just went on from there.
When I finished the first draft of ...Woods, I decided since these two were traveling the same road for so long, I put it aside and focused on finished the first draft of ...Locusts. Now that I'm done, I'll pick up one or the other and begin the long, but enjoyable (to me) process of revision.
Both of these I'm going to bite the bullet with and try to get an agent or major publisher interested, before anything else. Sci-fi's a decent market. Locusts, I think, is going to be the first of likely other books in an overall universe of book I'm going to label the Vast Array series.
Exciting, and like I said, such a wonderful feeling two words can create.
Back in '07, I wanted to write what I often like to read: sci-fi. I'd read Orson Scott Card's book on writing science fiction and took what he suggested to heart. I built the universe the story takes place in. To do that, I had to outline the history of mankind from modern day until the moment of the story, basically 160 years. The plot itself is pure SF, but running through it is the question of what happens after the feared apocalypse happens. Not with zombies, but Armageddon, two thirds of the world wiped out in the Final War. And how would God build a new Earth? It's NOT, in any sense of the word, a Left Behind type of book. In fact, funamental Christian readers will probably hate it becase, well, life went on. The Church survives, though changed, and the long running animosity between religions is gone. Forcibly, but still gone. Live with each other, or don't live. That's all running in the background. In the forefront, it's a pretty original sci-fi novel if I do say so myself.
The idea for it was spawned years before when I was stuck in a two hour meeting at work in which I had no real participation. To stay awake, I pretended to take notes, but in reality was writing a scene from a story - whatever came into my head. Years later, I found my little notes, and aside from very minor tweaking, it ended up as my first chapter. I just went on from there.
When I finished the first draft of ...Woods, I decided since these two were traveling the same road for so long, I put it aside and focused on finished the first draft of ...Locusts. Now that I'm done, I'll pick up one or the other and begin the long, but enjoyable (to me) process of revision.
Both of these I'm going to bite the bullet with and try to get an agent or major publisher interested, before anything else. Sci-fi's a decent market. Locusts, I think, is going to be the first of likely other books in an overall universe of book I'm going to label the Vast Array series.
Exciting, and like I said, such a wonderful feeling two words can create.
Comments